1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for effecting penetration of and mass transfer at a penetrable situs. In a specific and one preferred embodiment, the invention relates to apparatus and method for drilling into the interior volume of a "live" or "misfired" ordnance device and injecting into the interior volume of the live ordnance an "inerting medium" such as a rapidly solidifiable flowable composition which encapsulates and precludes operation of the firing/detonation mechanism of the ordnance.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the field of military ordnance, there exist a variety of ordnance devices, including artillery shells, launcher- as well as shoulder tube-fired rockets, grenades, mines, bombs, missiles, and other explosive weapons devices.
These ordnance devices typically incorporate an explosive "load" or "charge" (which may be a single-component explosive composition or charge, or which alternatively may be in the form of two or more explosive co-reactants, in the case of binary or multicomponent explosive systems), together with a firing or detonation mechanism, referred to hereafter as the "actuation mechanism," which may for example include a blasting cap, time-delay fuse, firing pin, impact ignition device, stab action element, timer, pressure-sensitive electrical resistance heating element, or other subassembly or structure which functions to ignite or detonate the explosive charge.
It is a not infrequent occurrence that the explosive ordnance article when deployed does not explode, due to the failure or malfunction of the actuation mechanism. As a result, the live ordnance article remains in a potentially explosive condition, and may be subject to detonation if the ordnance is impacted, moved, or operated on by an ordnance technician for the purpose of "disarming" the device, and may also be detonated by passage of time, such as may occur in the case of a faulty timer.
In military ordnance parlance, these potentially explosive misfiring ordnance devices are known as "duds," and they pose a self-evident and potentially severe risk of injury or death to persons encountering same. Examples range from explosive cannonballs of 18th and 19th century warfare which may remain buried in battlefields of that era, to misfired cruise missiles and armor-piercing artillery shells of the present time.
In addition to misfired ordnance devices which remain in a latent explosive state, other ordnance devices, e.g., land and sea mines, may be armed and deployed in a battle area, and subsequently may be abandoned upon retreat, forward movement of troop forces, or cessation of hostilities. In addition, mines, bombs, or trippable grenades may be deployed in civilian areas by guerrilla or terrorist personnel.
Upon discovery, these duds or otherwise deployed and unexploded ordnance devices may require the efforts of demolition's or ordnance experts to disable them. Such efforts are frequently very hazardous, and there are numerous instances in which "bomb squad," ordnance, or munitions personnel have been killed or seriously injured when an explosive device prematurely exploded during efforts to disarm it.
As an example of the prior art practice of the "inerting" of artillery shell or mortar round duds, it has been conventional practice for American military forces to dispatch an ordnance technician with a power drill and a wet mixture of plaster of paris to the site of a dud where the explosive device by virtue of its position, e.g., near personnel, vehicles, or buildings, cannot simply be detonated by another explosive device or charge being placed nearby and exploded to in turn "set off" the dud, or where the ordnance cannot be safely exploded, such as where the explosive device contains chemical warfare agents, or where the ordnance must be inerted to bring it back intact from the area of deployment, to show usage of ordnance by the opposing military or guerrilla/terrorist forces, which is banned by treaty or agreement. The ordnance technician would then drill into the fuse or actuation mechanism portion of the device (through the shell casing) and pump the wet plaster of paris mixture into the interior volume of the casing containing the actuation mechanism. In this manner, the injected plaster of paris mixture would flow around and encapsulate the actuation mechanism, progressively hardening so that upon final curing the actuation mechanism would be "frozen" or physically precluded from operation, so that the dud could be safely handled and subsequently disposed of in a non-hazardous manner.
The above-described prior art practice of inerting ordnance duds entails obvious danger and risks. In the drilling operation, the mere vibration or torque-induced translation of the dud caused by the drilling may be sufficient to cause a faulty actuation mechanism to become unstuck or otherwise effect ignition of the explosive charge. In addition, where exotic or custom ordnance are involved, or even ordnance previously unencountered by the personnel responsible for disarming the device, the specific location of the actuation mechanism may not be known or ascertainable, and in such instances drilling may also cause detonation of the explosive or otherwise fail to properly inert the ordnance article.
It would therefore be a substantial advance in the art of munitions and ordnance technology to provide a means and method for inerting of duds and other desirably inactivated live explosive devices, which minimize the risk of harm to demolitions and ordnance personnel involved in the inerting of such explosives and devices, as well as to the surrounding environment in proximity to the dud or live explosive device to be inerted.
In addition to ordnance inerting applications, many other applications exist in which it is desired to penetrate a penetrable situs and effect mass transfer therewith. Examples include: sampling of containers of unknown contents, in which toxic or otherwise hazardous materials may be present, e.g., waste drums of unknown origin and contents, at landfills, waste dumps, and abandoned industrial sites; collection of subsurface samples in terrestrial or extraterrestrial exploration; testing of gas for breathability in subterranean passages; injection of plastique or other detonatable explosive materials into bored openings in rock formations; injection of poison gas into underground bunkers during warfare; and underwater rescue involving injection of oxygen or oxygen-containing gas into the crew compartments of disabled submarines on the ocean floor. Many such penetration/mass transfer operations are desirably carried out from a command/control center remote from the penetrable situs.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a means and method for effecting penetration of and mass transfer with a penetrable situs in a simple, reliable, and efficient manner.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a means and method of such type which is of a compact and unitary configuration.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a means and method of such type in which the penetration/mass transfer system is remotely actuatable.
Other objects and advantages of the invention will be more fully apparent from the ensuing disclosure and appended claims.